


Handle with Care

by Callaeidae3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gen, Hypothermia, Keith (Voltron) Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 23:11:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18353657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: BTHB: Forcibly StrippedThe team handle a hypothermic Keith in a way that only upsets him more





	Handle with Care

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @purringkcith

Everything is a haze when they bring him. Too many hands touch him - hands that are warm, but hands that manipulate his limbs without first asking him. They force his legs to straighten, his arms away from his body, and he cries out because it leaves his torso exposed to the cold. He needs to curl in on himself, tuck his knees up to his chin again, but they won't let him.

They must want him to suffer even more while he dies and so are taking his last chance of warmth and survival from him.

"Keith," they say. "It's okay."

How can it be okay? It's freezing - he's freezing - and they're increasing the exposed area on his body until it's just cold, cold, cold. The hands don't let him go, and while they are, right now, his only source of warmth, he doesn't want them. Not if they're doing this to him. Not if they're making him suffer.

Keith tries to wrestle his way out from the grip (how many people are holding him?), but finds he can't. They're too strong and his body's too weak and numb. There's a lot of commotion going on around him as he tries to move though, so maybe he's doing at least a decent job of trying to break free.

"...need to get the flight suit off him! He's soaked through!"

"I thought our suits were water resistant? If they're resistant to space, then how can they not be resistant to snow?"

Too many voices. Too many people trying to kill his last chance of survival.

"Gahhh, Keith! Calm down! You need to calm down! We're here to help!"

"In answer to your question, Lance, there's a tear in the material on his shoulder. Must've gotten caught when he fell down the rocks. There's water all throughout his suit."

"Are you okay, Pidge?"

"I'm fine."

He's manoeuvred to somewhere bright and warm. It confuses him, why these people who were only seconds ago keeping him from his survival instinct to curl up and conserve heat are now moving him to a place that is so warm. The confusion turns to cold dread in his stomach, though, when he's leaned forward and the zip of his flight suit is pulled down.

Panic seizes him. Terror clutches his throat and he wrestles free of them in one violent shove. Something slams into him - the ground probably - and only then does he realise what a futile effort of escape he's making. He can't get his limbs to move and so all he can do is lie there in a shivering heap as the hands descend on him again.

"Keith, it's okay. It's just us. We're just trying to help you."

"Hunk, I don't think he recognises us."

"It's the hypothermia. Which is why we need to get that suit off him NOW."

He knows these people, right? But the hands - he doesn't know them. He doesn't trust them.

"Hey, just - stay still! Keith!"

No, no, he can't. He can't let them. Hands pin him down and he makes a desperate effort to shrug them off but it's useless. His movements are too feeble to be effective.

And so they get to work. Someone has their arms wrapped around his torso in a vice grip while two others pull his arms out of the sleeves. There's a brief discussion about someone maybe leaving the room but no one does. The voice that says they'll stay sounds right in front of them, humming through his chest. Keith has a moment where he almost is able to get his brain to work out who it is, but then they remove themselves from hugging him and the thought leaves him.

He's kept in place while the flight suit is worked off. The person resumes hugging him once it's down at his waist, and they hold him tight while he's stripped the rest of the way. He shivers badly, caught between his being freezing and the warmth of the room, the icy wet flight suit being off him and the warmth of the person's face on his chest as they hug him. He thinks he smells blood.

Keith stops fighting then, too exhausted. He feels himself start to drift, startled awake again by the replacing of his underpants for dry ones, and then he's fading. Out of reflex, he still tries to get away from the hands than tug his arms through loose sleeves and pull his legs through a set of loose long pants, but he no longer has energy to resist. It's more a thought to get away than a thought-turned-action now.

A familiar calm yet apologetic (and concerned) voice follows him into sleep.

 

He's not sure how long it's been when he surfaces. His body feels heavy, his muscles like weights that his brain is too tired to force to move. He groans, and a warm hand comes to rest on his forehead...but this hand is kind and one that he trusts, so he lets it stay there.

"You with me, Keith?"

He doesn't know where else he's been. He mumbles something incoherent even to himself. The hand moves to brush some of his hair - now somehow dry and not plastered to his face and dripping melted snow everywhere - off his face.

"It's okay. Take your time coming back around. Give your body the time it needs to rest."

Keith takes that as an invitation to let himself go back to sleep and so he does.

 

He's more coherent the next time he wakes, lucid enough to recognise voices and awake enough to open his eyes. Everything's blurry, a clouded mess of dim lighting and colours, but then he blinks and the colours sharpen themselves into the shapes of Pidge, Lance and Hunk.

Pidge is the first to see him looking at them. "Hey, you're awake!"

Lance and Hunk's gazes snap towards him, all worried expressions and relief. Keith stares at them tiredly, but when no one offers any explanation, he swallows.

"Wha'...what happened?" he murmurs.

"Snow happened," Hunk says. "Snow and a hypothermic paladin."

"Huh?'

"We were looking for a special alpine flower the aliens on this planet needed for medicine," Pidge explains. "We, uh, made the mistake of deciding to split up to look for it. You fell down a slope at some point and by the time we went looking for you...Lance said you were in the process of shedding your paladin armour, saying it was too hot. You were terribly hypothermic, Keith."

Lance mutters something under his breath. "Seriously, man. You had us all freaked out."

Keith doesn't remember any of it. His body does, but the only thing his mind can recall is a muddled mix of emotions. He thinks he remembers Shiro being with him at some point, but when he looks around the room - the infirmary, he realises - he can't find him.

"Where's...?"

"If you're looking for Shiro," Hunk says, "he's taking a nap. He took the last shift staying with you. We've only just swapped now. Coran's taking a nap too, and Allura's on the bridge."

Keith's brow creases. "Shift? How long...?"

Pidge hums. "Shiro said you woke up while he was in here, which was about fourteen hours since we got back to the Castle. That was... five hours ago, so nineteen hours."

"Oh..."

It's a struggle to get the words out. His voice is hoarse and has almost no projection. It's a wonder that the others can hear him at all. He's wondering about this when he spots a strip of white peeking out from Pidge's collar. 

"Pidge," he whispers, "you got hurt?"

A guarded look flashes across her face. Not just Pidge's face, but Hunk's and Lance's as well. Keith frowns.

"It's nothing," Pidge says, not looking him in the eye.

"What d'you mean, nothin'?"

He's awake enough to recognise his own dismissive tactics being used by someone else.

Pidge grimaces. Her gaze flicks between Lance and Hunk before she says anything. Then she looks at Keith, her expression unreadable. "You were delirious. Confused. We might have... overwhelmed you earlier when we were trying to get you out of your wet flight suit. We were worried if we didn't get it off soon enough....Keith, I'm sorry. We're sorry. We should've waited for Shiro instead of putting you through that. He wasn't far behind us, and we - "

"It's okay," Keith interrupts. "Really. You did what you had to."

A few minutes of tense silence goes by and no one says anything. In those minutes, Keith works out that the reason why his question wasn't answered must be because he's the one who hurt Pidge. He feels ashamed to think about it, but decides not to bring it up in favour of avoiding making Pidge and the others feel any worse.

It's okay, Keith wants to say, but his reaction to everything earlier must've been enough to convince Pidge that it surely wasn't okay. He hopes he doesn't end up remembering that episode when he recovers more, else it might be harder to reassure her convincingly.

He's too exhausted to stay awake any longer, and they let him drift off back to sleep. Before he does, he feels the many layers of blankets over him be pulled a little further up over his shoulders, and a remorseful "sorry" is murmured in his ear before Pidge settles back down in her chair.

Keith makes a mental note to verbally thank her later on. After all, regardless of how... unpleasant that post-rescue experience might've been for all them, they still saved his life. He doesn't want them apologising for that.

 

 


End file.
